Before execution, Manuel Valle penned letter to Miami archbishop

Only days after Manuel Valle’s execution, a letter addressed to Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski arrived at his office from the convicted cop killer himself.

In the two-page letter, written out in small, neat script, Valle penned his thoughts about his family, his forthcoming death and being at peace with God.

But the letter is perhaps most striking for what Valle did not say: He did not mention Coral Gables Police Officer Louis Pena, the man he shot and killed. He did not mention Pena’s family. Neither did he mention the crime nor repent his actions.

The letter was dated Sept. 23. Valle was executed by lethal injection on Sept. 28. The letter arrived in Wenski’s office on Oct. 3. When his secretary opened it, Wenski said, she wept.

“I am well, at peace, and prepared for whatever God’s will has in store for me within the next week,” Valle wrote Wenski, one of several Florida bishops who had asked Gov. Rick Scott to spare Valle’s life.